If you are from an ESA New Member State

Programme for New Member States

The purpose of the programme for New Member States (NMS) and its incentive scheme is to:

• Help the national administrations to relay information about ESA business opportunities among the national economic operators.
• Speed-up the identification and development of economic operators that may sustain a viable business case as a supplier for ESA projects.
• Support the rapid introduction of the national economic operators in the European space supply chain.
• Contribute to bridge the geographical return gap occurring in the first years after a country accession as a full-rights member of ESA.
• Encourage and promote industry-academia collaboration, to foster the spin-out of academic knowledge to industrial recurring products and services ready for the market (at regional, national and European level, via small and medium-sized enterprises and start-up companies).
• Provide training and feedback to guide economic operators in the NMS working with ESA. Training is available on such topics as product assurance, quality assurance, ECSS standards, and proposal writing.
• Collaborate with national space offices to ensure a coordinated and dynamic space ecosystem aligned with the national space strategy and governmental needs.

Incentive scheme

The budget for the NMS incentive scheme is an agreed fraction (45%) of the NMS contribution to the ESA Mandatory programme with a minimum €750 000 per year.  The duration of the incentive scheme is eight years from the moment the country acquires full rights as an ESA Member State, with a possible extension of up to four years.

The incentive scheme procedures are carried out by the Capability & Country Support Division within ESA’s Directorate of Commercialisation, Industry and Competitiveness which reports to a task force operating between the NMS and ESA and chaired by the NMS head of Delegation and the ESA director in charge of procurement.

The budget of the incentive scheme is expended by placing contracts with economic operators in the NMS, through either Calls for Proposals or Top-Down activities. While ESA Calls for Proposals offer the possibility to submit proposals with bidders’ ideas, top-down activities are based on an ESA-defined statement of work requiring interested bidders to respond with a proposal on the execution of the work.

Calls for Proposals are published approximately once per year on esa-star Publication where economic operators in the concerned NMS may submit proposals for activities, within programmatic restrictions described in the Cover Letter of the Call.

For Top Down activities, a roadmap for specific activities described by ESA’s Statement of Work is agreed by the NMS task force.

All Calls for Proposals follow a common approach:

• The activities proposed by the economic operator should aim to fulfil the objectives of the incentive scheme. Usually, four types of activity are foreseen: Preparatory activities aimed at the economic operator acquiring skills needed to bid in ESA programmes; R&D activities aimed at the early definition phases of space products or services; Flight equipment activities aimed at advanced development phases and; Development of terrestrial products and services based on the use of satellite data.
• The Call for Proposals together with the applicable conditions is published in esa-star Publication and accessible to economic operators who have registered with ESA via esa-star Registration. The Call has a fixed tendering period (typically six weeks) with a closing date indicated in the cover letter.
• The proposals are evaluated following standard ESA evaluation procedures.
• The proposals recommended by the evaluation teams (known as Tender Evaluation Boards) are submitted for approval to the NMS task force. Approval from the task force allows ESA to start negotiations for the placement of a contract with the economic operator whose proposal has been approved and, in case of successful negotiations, place a contract.

Top Down activities generally follow the following approach:

• Proposals are submitted in response to an Tender Action initiated by ESA with a Statement of Work and clear requirements, published on esa-star Publication and accessible to all economic operators registered with ESA. The tender period is fixed (typically six weeks) with a closing date indicated in the cover letter.
• An agreement is made between ESA and the NMS delegation prior to publishing the Statement of Work on the budget and requirements, meaning there is no need to submit the recommended activities to the NMS task force  for final approval (meaning the time to contract is significantly reduced). 

Calls for Proposals require economic operators to describe their intended activities as part of the tender process. This can speed up the participation of economic operators in the ESA system because there is no need for them to wait for a suitable opportunity.

The time from identification of an ESA need to a contract in the incentive scheme is much shorter than in other ESA programmes, contributing to the fast incorporation of economic operators in the system.

The activities in the incentive scheme help NMS economic operators to acquire the experience and skills needed to participate in the normal ESA competitive tender processes. They are awarded to proposals evaluated above a given threshold of technical credibility and usefulness but are not the object of competitive tendering (i.e. they only compete with other entities in their own country). 

At the end of the incentive scheme period, the national economic operators are expected to have established appropriate international networks and acquired the skills to participate in ESA programmes on a fully competitive basis.

The duration of the incentive scheme takes into consideration that ESA programmes last several years and that an economic operator may need to be involved from the beginning of the programme in order to find a suitable activity as a member of the supply chain in advanced phases of the programme.

Several schemes have also been put in place to prepare Associate Member States (AM) and European Cooperating States (ECS) for joining ESA in the future as full members, pending approval by the Council.

Further information

For further information on the NMS Incentive Scheme, contact:

Stephen Airey
Head of Division Capability & Country Support
email: stephen.airey@esa.int